Scarlet A

The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion

Katie Watson

Aims to improve the American abortion debate, and to inspire more substantive private conversation about abortion

Brings statistics, philosophy, law, and headlines to life with personal stories of abortion patients and providers that give the reader a window into an otherwise hidden world

Provides unique access to the experiences and personal beliefs of abortion providers

Considers the deeper structural, cultural, and social issues that fuel contemporary political fights, by illuminating how language has framed and steered the abortion debate

Explains current US law on abortion in terms those outside the legal profession can easily understand, from US Supreme Court cases to state legislation

Scarlet A

The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion

Katie Watson

Description

Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right over 40 years ago, it bears stigma?a proverbial scarlet A?in the United States. Millions participate in or benefit from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend, or loved one to loved one? This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. It argues persuasively that America would benefit from working to reverse such stigma, providing readers with tools that may help them model ways of doing so.

Our silence around private experience with abortion has distorted our public discourse. Both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on the extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the public discourse polarized and contentious, and keeps the focus on the cases that occur the least. Katie Watson focuses instead on the remaining 95% of abortion cases. The book gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains why this public/private disjuncture exists, what it costs us, and what can be gained by including ordinary abortion in public debate.

As Scarlet A explains, abortion has been a constitutional right for nearly 45 years, and it should remain one. What we need now are productive conversations about abortion ethics: how could or should people decide whether to exercise this right? Watson paints a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately invites readers to draw their own conclusions.

Scarlet A

The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion

Katie Watson

Author Information

Katie Watson is a bioethicist and lawyer who has taught bioethics, medical humanities, and constitutional law for fifteen years at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. In her role as an ethics professor, she has been elected a Board member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Chair of the Ethics Committee and Board member of the National Abortion Federation, and Bioethics Advisor to and Member of the National Medical Council of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In 2017, she began practicing law again, joining the ACLU of Illinois as Senior Counsel for the Women's and Reproductive Rights Project.